Lightening Online

Some of you already know the story of the day Farmboy and I met and how, in an innocent conversation, I informed him that I had no intention of marrying a farmer.  I have no idea what possessed me to share that with him but out it came in the course of conversation.  In fact, until that comment came out of my mouth, I didn’t even know I felt that way.  I guess I’d never met a “real” farmer before so there had been no reason to even consider how I felt about the whole issue.

He then proceeded to politely ask me why and to try and refute all my objections to being a farmers wife.

It’s one of those moments you might come across in a story where the author puts in an “if only they’d known” type comment. 

I can honestly say that neither of us had marriage to one another in mind at that moment.  After all, we’d only met just minutes before.  Our common link was Farmboys youngest brother.

Despite my intentions, we did indeed fall in love and I had to reconsider my intention to never marry a farmer.

It wasn’t an easy time in my life and involved a lot of tears and anguish.  Who’d have though falling in love could be so complicated????

I’d like to say that all of my fears were unfounded and that I took to farming life like a duck to water.  As it turns out, my fears were only the tip of the iceberg.  I had no idea about things like working hours and struggles to work with family.  arrgggh….

My biggest fears were based on media portrayal of farming life.  Lack of basic services, isolation and of course, the horrible media portrayal of the anguish farmers went through in the 80s when banks forced some of them from their land.

There have been numerous times over the years that I’ve wished I had stuck to my gut instinct to stay right away from farming.  I’ve never regretted marrying the man that Farmboy is.  His profession on the other hand….

To his credit, Farmboy has never thrust things upon me the way some husbands do their wives.  He doesn’t complain about my fuel usage if I go somewhere the way his father did to his mother.  He does occasionally ask for my help with different things but generally only as a last resort rather than a first resort like some other farmers.  He’s never made me feel inadequate about my lack of farming knowledge (not that that has stopped me from feeling inadequate).

We even did the whole “move to the farm” thing gradually, living in town for 4 years before venturing out onto the farm.

Many of you will be aware that farming has been going through some pretty tough times over the past years.  At the end of last year, Farmboys brother left the farm.  This was due to a combination of factors.

I have to admit, I was a little bit jealous.  How come he gets to go and we have to stay and continue to struggle?  Not just financially but emotionally.

At the end of the day, it’s our decision to stay.

I have to admit though, I’ve been harbouring a secret hope that while we’re away, something might come up that would cause us not to come back.  Or only to come back temporarily to sort things out before relocating up north somewhere.

Well, all that changed in the past week.

Why?

I tried tractor driving.

And I REALLY like it.

Really, REALLY like it!!!!

Who’d have thought.

Darn you tractor, now I WANT to come back from our trip.

It’s a conspiracy, I tell you!!!!

I guess I’m going to have to add this to my “101 Things I Thought I’d Never Do” list.

Our old Ford Tractor with the post hole driver on the back.  Farmboy actually has a sideline business putting in posts and sometimes erecting whole fences.  It has been an absolute god-send through the drought years and in more recent times, the money he has earnt fencing has been earmarked for our “big trip”.

Oh yeah, and that’s me standing next to it, pretending like I know what I’m doing. 

Here we are against the new fence.  The kids helped roll the cyclone out with the help of their quad bike.  Such hardship when you have to ride a motorbike isn’t it???? :)  Lleyton then stayed behind and rode along carrying the staples while Farmboy banged them into the posts.  I tried but it was going to take me all day to get 1 staple in!!!!

I’m not sure how well you can see it but this shot shows the old fenceline.  It was pretty much made up of iron droppers with the occasional concrete posts.  Parts of this one were completely fallen over, making it pretty useless for keeping sheep in or out.

And this shot shows a little bit of the new fence line with the wooden posts.  It should be a lot more sturdy now and will hopefully last 50 years or so.  I didn’t quite get a matching shot of the above with the new fence.

I’m writing this in Windows Live Writer as I’m having trouble loading photograph’s direct to the blog at the moment.  I’m not sure what size these images are going to end up being when this gets published – hopefully not too small.  Let’s see…

We decided to engage our children in some “slave labour” this week.  They’re actually pretty lucky and don’t have to do all that much around the farm (especially in comparison to kids of previous generations).

Farmboy’s actual motivation was to give the kids the opportunity to earn some spending money for our big trip.  When he talked to me about it, I pointed out that he doesn’t ask much of them and he has been taking a lot of time away from the farm for them of late.

They weren’t all the keen on the idea at first but when I got out there, Singstar Princess told me “this is more fun than I thought”.

Of course, Lleyton’s job was such a chore!!!!

LOL.  Farm kids have a great life don’t they?

It was really interesting watching the problem solving skills the kids were using when they had trouble cutting the old fence.

It was a beautiful day.  The kids had fun, learnt some new skills and got some fresh air.  Farmboy got his job done faster.  The kids will get some pocket money for the trip.  Everyone is happy. 

Mind you, I was the one who went back in the afternoon to help with banging in the new posts.  Wonder if I get pocket money too????  LOL

Today, the kids are helping Farmboy erect the cyclone on the new fence.

Image via Wikipedia

Take a bunch of fat cantankerous sheep and ask your wife to help you draft them.

Make sure your wife is overtired and brewing a cold so that she bursts into tears instantaneously without really being able to explain why.

Then call out instructions to her from where you’re standing, causing the sheep to run away from you just when she finally has them running the right way. Therefore, making her job harder and making her feel even more stupid than before.

When she bursts into tears, tell her she’s doing a good job so that she feels even worse about bursting into tears and then tell her not to worry about drafting the sheep because you have no idea that not completing the job is going to completely decimate what little self esteem she does have.

Add into the mix an overfed, cantankerous dog. Then part way through, blame the kids for the dog not working because you insist they feed the dog but complain they don’t do it “right”. Attacking her children is going to make her feel so much better about he whole situation - NOT!!!!

When said sheep are finally drafted, drop the bombshell that 2/3’s of them need to be re-drafted to make a 3rd group. Tell her that it doesn’t really matter if she doesn’t want to do them. Of course, now she’ll be leaving feeling like the job isn’t “finished” and we all know how women LOVE to leave a job unfinished.

When the job is finally over, tell her that she was much more patient than you would have been which probably made the job easier in the long run. She might even *just* believe you and it might save your marriage.

If you can come up with a cup of tea and some chocolate - she might even consider helping you out again. One day…

P.S.  For those of you who are concerned, Farmboy and I are fine.  While this is an account of what happened, it is meant to be funny - you’re allowed to laugh. 

It’s moments like these when I’m totally IN LOVE with where we live!!!

This time of year around here is a vitally important one. It’s the time that we need to harvest our crops. Timing is crucial because at the ripe stage is when our grain is at it’s most vulnerable. Once the crop is ripe, there is the potential to lose thousands of dollars in a day.

As a farmer’s wife you tend to become a “harvest widow” as all focus is turned toward the harvest and getting that crop off and delivered to the silos. When I was a young bride, I was stunned at the blinkers my husband seemed to wear during the busy seasons on the farm. Nothing existed in life other than the job at hand (whether that be seeding or harvest or shearing….). He’s a bit better these days and it helps that we’re not currently doing as many acres (and it’s been quite a few years now since we’ve had a big crop to reap due to low rainfall issues) but it’s still a busy and high pressure time of year.

The Header was reaping in the paddock next to the house a couple of days ago so I took some photographs to show you.

This Header doesn’t belong to us (no way we could afford it). We have an agreement with Farmboy’s father which allows us to make use of his header to reap our crop. One day we’ll have to buy our own header and it won’t be anywhere near as big or as flash as this one.

In some parts of the world (ie the US) these machines are referred to as Combine Harvesters. Here, we call them Headers.

Basically they cut off the top part of the crop (where the head is that contains the seed) and thresh out all the seed. The seed goes in the box (which is rather full in this picture) and the chaff gets blown out the back.

This is what the header looks like from the front:

I find these machines quite intimidating. Front on they look like a monster that’s just ready to eat me up (and I suspect I’d come off second best if I did end up being run over by one).

And here is the rather full Header pulling up to unload into the truck:

The Truck IS ours. This is only our second harvest with it and Farmboy is still in love. He’d been wanting to get a truck for a very long time and our old one really wasn’t up to the task of carting the grain. This one makes the job a lot easier and can cart more in a load (meaning we need to take less trips to the silo).

Harvest is currently the only time the boys work in together (Farmboy, his brother and his dad). It’s kind of a bittersweet occasion this year though as Farmboy’s brother has decided to leave farming so it’s their last season together.

It’s also a horrible time of year for me because I’m allergic to grain dust. I have no one to blame but myself really. I knew this before I married Farmboy. While we were “dating”, I climbed up onto the header they had at the time and ended up coming out in hives. Great idea to go ahead and marry a farmer knowing I’m so allergic to grain dust. At least it’s something treatable. But it does leave me feeling rather drained at this time of year as my body fights the allergens in my system.

Once upon a time it was also a fun time to watch the bank account as most of our year’s income would come in within the space of a few weeks. Of course, most of the money coming in goes out again to put the next crop in but it was still fun to watch. Not so much in the past years with poor yield’s and other factors affecting our income. Hopefully that fun will return again one day. Right now we are very thankful to have the crops that we do have. While they may not be fantastic, they’re a definite improvement on nothing.

I’m a bit behind when it comes to news. I don’t watch it as a general rule. Too depressing really. While we were away, I visited a news website in search of something and the headlines greeting me were along the lines of “SA farmers watch crops die”. Oh good. We went away figuring at least we wouldn’t have to watch our crops die. See, news is bad. Not knowing is much better!!!

Of course, the down side to not watching the news is that I never really know what’s going on. However, most of the “important” stuff tends to filter through in blog posts, conversation and of course, those great comedy shows we have here that are based on news headlines.

In fact, I was watching one last night (okay, half watching). One I haven’t seen before. Something to do with the question or along those lines. And I happened to catch a question about the renaming of the drought.

WHAT?

Yes, apparently some very bright (and possibly overpaid) bunny has come up with the idea that if change the word “drought” to “dry”, farmers won’t feel so bad.

GOVERNMENT experts say the word “drought” is making farmers feel bad and want people to use the word “dryness” instead to describe Australia’s worst “lack of rain” in a century. Source: http://www.news.com.au/story/0,27574,24540442-5009760,00.html

Of Course!!!! Why didn’t I think of that???? That changes EVERYTHING!!!!

“Words like drought … have negative connotations for farm families,” the report said.

NEWS FLASH: It’s not the WORDS that have negative connotations for farming families. It’s working your butt off all year for NOTHING!!!!

For those of you who are unfamiliar with farming, drought is actually a NORMAL part of the weather cycle. Most farmers are reasonable business-people and will be prepared for a drought. It does depend on where you live as to how normal weather patterns in terms of drought might affect you. Around here we work on 1 in 7 years being a severe drought. We also work on 1 in 7 years being when we’ll actually MAKE any money. The other 5 flutter around the “average” mark. In other parts of Australia, it’s not uncommon to have more years of drought and perhaps more in a row.

The problem in recent years has been EXTENDED drought. Most farmers in this area coped fine with the first drought. Many even managed to survive the second year of drought (actually, it’s a bit more complicated than that - the 2nd year here wasn’t actually a drought - we were badly affected by very low grain prices). When you tip into a 3rd year of going backwards in terms of the farms cash flow balance, the stress starts to show. In all honesty, I’ve lost count of the number of years in a row where we have either gone backwards or simply “survived” (enough to cover the bills and not really go backwards but not enough to catch up from the years we’ve gone backwards).

I’m kind of confused though, as to how a panel of “experts” can come up with the idea that changing the word “drought” to “dryness” is part of the solution to the ongoing problem Australia is facing right now in terms of rainfall. Yes, drought has a negative connotation. But aren’t we only playing with semantics here? Will changing the word Earthquake to “a little shaking” change the devastation that an Earthquake can wreak? Perhaps we’ll change Tsunami to “oversized waves”?

In fairness, I went to check out the report being quoted by various media. The media love to grab hold of the tiniest snippet and sensationalize it. I hope they don’t feel like they’re “helping” because in reality they’re not. All they’re doing is removing the focus from the real problems and possible solutions.

I’m trying to wade my way through the actual report but it’s 160 pages long and I’m tired.

Here’s what I DO know:

• We live in a very blessed country that works hard to look after ALL of it’s citizens. While the system may not be perfect, we are grateful for the assistance that has been given by the government to date. Like all systems, there are those who’ll go to any lengths for a “freebie” even if they don’t need it. Those kinds of people make me mad and in all honesty, I hope Karma comes and bites them on the bum at some point. There are others who fall through the cracks for one reason or another. They are a concern. As are those who are so connected to the farm that they feel living in such circumstances is just no longer a viable option and take their own lives (thankfully we haven’t seen too much of that around these parts this time around).
• I know many farmers are nervous because past Labor governments have made it quite clear that they don’t value farmers as a vital part of our economy or community. Let’s hope the current Labor government doesn’t share that attitude.
• Farmers are incredibly adaptable people. They’re constantly adapting to the conditions set before them. Given time, if these conditions are here to stay, they will adapt. Assistance may be needed in the interim and funding into research and technology can help in the long-term.
• Name changes really isn’t going to get to the heart of the problem. While solutions are complex and will vary from situation to situation, I think the suggestion to change the terminology from “drought” to “dryness” is just plain stupid.

You can read more on this at National Review of Drought Policy.

One of my boys (who will remain nameless for privacy’s sake) spent all day Saturday in our local hospital. Thankfully the government hasn’t gone and closed it on us like they were threatening a while ago (and I understand they’ve done a backflip on that particular proposal - something I am also thankful for).

After some rough and tumble with his brother, he sustained an injury to a rather delicate area of his anatomy. It’s not an area you want to take chances with so we whisked him into town Saturday morning when he woke with swelling to the area.

It’s obviously not an area our local doctor wishes to take chances with (thankfully we now have a local doctor after 12 months without one) and he admitted him to hospital for observation.

Today we had to take him almost 200km to have an “urgent” ultrasound done. Urgent in the sense that we couldn’t wait the 2-3 weeks to get a “regular” appointment.

The hospital rang on Saturday to make this “urgent” appointment and we were told to come at 10 am and they would fit us in when they could.

We headed off early to be in the town by 10am only to have them tell us to come back at 12 noon.

Okay.

Said child is supposed to remain lying down.

I had to travel the whole way down in the back so he could lie down in the front seat.

We don’t live in town.

Yet they want us to come back in 2 hours.

I guess that’s better than having to sit in the waiting room for 2 hours.

Just.

*sigh*

Poor kid.

I know medical services aren’t all that great in the cities either (in terms of waiting times, locations etc) but some days I find it most frustrating that the bulk of our services are almost a 2 hour drive away. If they couldn’t see us until 12, could they not have told us that? Or called us? We do have phones out here in the sticks. We could have stayed home for those couple of hours so that he could lie down comfortably.

Anyway, all looks fine and he’s on bed-rest until the swelling goes down. It looks like there shouldn’t be any permanent damage done.

There’s never a dull moment with kids is there?

Here are some photographs I took at the Field Days last Wednesday. The kids get the Wednesday off from school so they were our focus on that day.

Trailer Boy having some fun at the local Case IH dealer’s stand. Even better was having people in the “know” who made sure he got a free Case showbag with lots of goodies including a tractor keyring which he thinks is PERFECT because the wheels actually move and the keyring section makes a great “trailer” (I think he’s calling it a spreader). Shhh….don’t tell anyone that I pilfered the Case pen from his bag - it’s a good pen!!!

If Farmboy had a never-ending cheque book, this would be his next purchase. Well, one of them anyway. Isn’t it shiny?

This is “apparently” the tractor Farmboy would like to buy for me to drive. The look of terror on my face is REAL, even if I’m not really driving it!!! It’s BIG!!!

See!!! TOLD you it was BIG!!! Not as big as the one Farmboy is drooling over in the photo above but waaaayyyyy too big for ME!

Here is Singstar Princess looking beautiful as usual. I wonder how much Megafert will pay me for featuring their balloon on my blog??? I didn’t even get a free beanie or scarf from them either!!!

“Dad, can we buy one of these?” Trailer Boy would LOVE a 4-wheeler! We’d like to get one as they’re quite handy around the farm. However, it’s the kind of purchase that is very “non essential” during extended drought. One day….

So there is a brief glimpse into one of our days at the Field Days. It’s very red isn’t it? I have to admit I’m rather partial to the red coloured machinery myself (the main opposition to red is green - John Deere). Plus of course good coffee and good company made the local Case site quite attractive.

Lambing season is drawing to a close here on Farm Lightening (hee, hee, wonder what Farmboy would think if he knew I’d renamed his farm????) .

The other day Farmboy and his brother had all the ewes in with their lambs and Farmboy was able to count how many lambs he has this year. He was extremely happy with our final lambing percentage for the year which was well over 100%. Meaning we had a lot of twins born this year.

Twins are great. You kind of get two for the price of one.

Of course, they do come with their own risks. It’s not unusual for Farmboy to have to assist a mother with giving birth to a second lamb.

It’s a busy time for Farmboy as he needs to keep a closer eye on the sheep than usual. Not that he’s out there with them all the time or anything but he likes to check them at least once a day.

This photo shows two very newborn lambs that Farmboy delivered. It’s not very clear because it’s been taken from quite a distance back. It’s important not to get too close to newborn lambs and their mother. But if you look closely, you can see that the lambs are still partly covered in blood and afterbirth.

Lambs are one of my favourite part of living on a farm. They are so cute running around after their mums in the paddock.